Daryl Morey has positioned the Rockets for a blockbuster move after amnestying Luis Scola and selecting Jeremy Lamb, Royce White and Terrence Jones with the Nos. 12, 16 and 18 picks of last month’s draft.

Daryl Morey

Beyond Lamb, White and Jones, the Rockets could use a combination of 2011 draft picks Marcus Morris, Donatas Motiejunas and Chandler Parsons in a potential trade for Dwight Howard or Andrew Bynum.

“It’s very similar to what Boston did,” Morey said in reference to the Celtics’ 2008 trade for Kevin Garnett. “Hopefully, it will yield the same result.”

Houston is likely to have at least one lottery pick next summer, and could have another from Toronto as well.

Kevin Garnett is returning to the Boston Celtics after considering retirement, multiple sources told ESPN.com. The forward will receive a three-year, $34 million deal, the sources said.

Kevin Garnett

The Celtics have one other big name heading into free agency in shooting guard Ray Allen. While he has also expressed a desire to return to Boston, sources told ESPN.com’s Brian Windhorst that the NBA champion Miami Heat have made Allen their primary offseason target.

“The decision came down to whether KG wanted to keep playing,” a source told the Boston Herald. “And once he decided that he did, it was going to be Boston. He wasn’t going to leave Doc (Rivers) and those guys and play anywhere else.”

The Spurs may consider signing Kevin Garnett this summer, according to a person within the organization.

Kevin Garnett

Garnett will be an unrestricted free agent, as will Tim Duncan.

“Hopefully management can do something to bring [Garnett] back, maybe add some pieces to this team that we need to get over the top,” Paul Pierce told reporters after Boston was eliminated by the Heat on Saturday night. “If not, it’s been a tremendous run.”

Kevin Garnett scored a game-high 28 points, grabbed 14 rebounds, blocked five shots, and recorded three steals in Boston’s 83-80 Game 6 elimination of the Atlanta Hawks.

Garnett opened his postgame press conference by taking aim at Hawks co-owner Michael Gearon Jr., who had called Garnett a “dirty player”.

“First off, I want to say thank you to the owner for giving me some extra gas tonight,” Garnett said. “My only advice to him is next time he opens his mouth, actually know what he’s talking about — X’s and O’s versus checkbooks and bottom lines.

“We’re not dirty. We’re firm, we play aggressive, but we’re not dirty. You have to understand the word ‘dirty’ in this game is very defined: Trying to hurt guys, ill intent. That’s not how we play basketball. We play very, very respectable to the opponent, to the city. I play with a lot of passion and with force. It’s the playoffs.”

Danny Ainge does not want to see another decline in the franchise like the one that happened after the Boston Celtics’ original Big Three dried up, and he is reportedly willing to break up his current star trio to ensure that.

The only problem is that he is not seeing any worthwhile deals to make.

The Celtics have limped to a 5-8 start behind 34-year-old Paul Pierce, 35-year-old Kevin Garnett and 36-year-old Ray Allen. Ainge, the Celtics’ president of basketball operations, told The Boston Globe that he would consider a trade if it would help the team get younger and be poised to be competitive in the next era.

As one league official said, “We were making progress, until Garnett [expletive] everything up.”

Regardless of how long the lockout lasts, it will be the players and not the owners that bring the NBA positive publicity again after the labor dispute is settled.

“We can’t have completely poisoned waters here when this is over,” one front-office executive said. “Stern gets that, but I’m not sure all of our owners do. We have to have these guys on board, or where are we as a league?”

A total of $161 million in escrow funds were withheld by the NBA last season, and the league office sent a stack of more than 350 checks to the Players Association last week to begin issuing the refunds.

Pau Gasol, Kevin Garnett

In previous seasons, 10 percent of players’ salaries were withheld under the escrow system, and in most years only a portion was returned. But last season, the amount of salaries paid out by the 30 NBA teams came in well below 57 percent, meaning the players will get all of their withheld funds back.

In addition, the league office sent an additional $26 million in funds to the union to satisfy its obligation to pay out 57 percent of BRI.

A total of $187 million is being transferred from the owners to the players as they continue to negotiate a new CBA.

Kevin Garnett was linked to the Lakers in the summer of 2007, but ultimately ended up being traded to the Celtics.

Kevin Garnett

“I was pretty close to be honest,” said Garnett. “What disturbed me about the whole Lakers situation was Kobe (Bryant) and Phil (Jackson) at the time. They were at each other pretty bad, and it was a new situation I didn’t want to get into … It was my choice, yeah. There was a lot going on and I didn’t want to be a part of it.”